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MINGGU KE 14

AUDIO DAN VIDEO

The Mechanics of Editing
Assume you're shooting a documentary about Swedish arts and crafts. You have nearly
an hour of footage of the carving of Dala horses. No one but another carver is going to
be interested in watching that much unedited footage. The idea is fin' you to choose the
best of your shots and string them together in an interesting and informative way, maybe
add music and a bit of narration, and move on to glassmaking in Smaland. This, in a
nutshell, is the edit process. Hue's the step-by-step.
Step 1: Logging tape
The first thing you'll do is assess your footage in a process called "logging tape."
Logging can be done on paper or directly into the computer. This often depends on how
much tape there is, whether it's all going into the computer or just "selects," and whether
you're sharing the edit computer. Note every shot, the timecode number where it should
begin and end, as well as enough information to be able to recognize the shot by its to,,
notes, Don't call shots #1, #2, #3, and so on. The bigger the project, the faster you'll get
lost if you've done a sloppy jog logging.
Step 2: Digitization and batch capture
Unless you record your footage directly into a computer or a digital file-storage medium,
editing will require digitization that is, transferring visual data from the camera tapes to
the edit computer. If the logging was done on the edit computer, this may simply be a
matter of telling the computer to record the shots in a process often called "batch
capture." The computer will talk to the playback deck, usually your camera, through the
FireWire cable (IEEE 1394). The computer will say, "Insert tape NYC uptown and you'll
do just that. The computer will search the tape for the correct time code address and will
digitize the shot's audio and/or video is logged.

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Step 3: Creating a timeline

Once the data is in the computer, you will need to create a timeline, a "blank document"
where you will lay down will - intended program. Your timeline is like an infinitely long
piece of video-tape with many open tracks for video and audio.
Step 4: Arranging your shots
Once you've created a timeline, you'll begin to arrange your media along that timeline by
inserting or overlaying those images mid sounds on the timeline. You'll choose where
pieces of media begin and end, whether they overlap, and how they'll interact.

Step 5: Trimming, slippin', and a slidin'

As you begin laying media on your timeline, you will see the need to rearrange and
adjust the positioning of your media. Adjusting the boundary between two shots is called
"trimming." You might trim an edit a couple of frames one way or the other, forcing one
shot or audio clip to end sooner and the other to begin sooner. You are always free to
trim audio and video together or separately. Uneven trimming of audio and video will
result in what's known as a "split edit." You might also recognize the opportunity to
improve your edit by moving clips, even groups of-clips, along the timeline. This is called
"slipping or "sliding."

Step 6: Output
Once all your media is in place and you're happy with the look and sound of your project,
you will -"output" your project either "printing to tape", burning it to a DVD, or possibly
uploading it to a server or streaming over the web.
Every nonlinear editing (NLE) system's graphical user interface or GUI (pronounced
"gooey") is a little different. Every NLE's approach to the processes involved in editing
will differ, too. Here are many diverse and powerful NLEs on the market. I don't know
which system you'll choose, and I don't know if you'll use that system the same way I
would, so I'm not going try and tell you "how" to trim or "where" you'll find the titling tools.

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I will assure you that every system will have a method trimming and titling. Many will be
similar in approach and function, but you're going to have to read the manual to learn
your system. Every nonlinear edit system I've ever used has come with a practical and
helpful tutorial I recommend you take advantage of this.
The Universal Principles of Editing
While editing mostly involves art and storytelling, it also revolves around organization
and information management. After all, you can't produce the best possible edit it you
don't know what-shots exist, or worse, you know what shots exist but don't know where;
they are, Or worst of all, you saw the shot once but think you accidentally erased it!
All NLE programs have sonic provisions for information management and allow limited
searehes. More advanced programs offer more advanced possibilities. Still, I was
recently involved in a monstrously large shoot with dozens and dozens of raw tapes and
found it faster and more efficient to do rough logs and pick - usable shots, called
"selects", before sitting down to begin digitizing shots. You can find my paper log sheets
and a legend to help understand my principles by logging on to my website
(www.petemay.com).

The Rules
Properly applied, "the rules" of editing allow an audience to follow the story being told.
It's a convention of storytelling as old as motion pictures and is based on replicating
reality. Many of the rules are designed to prevent you from making editing errors that fall
broadly into the category of jump cuts. Jump cuts are edits that, visually speaking, defy,
the logic and physics of a situation. If in the first shot someone is standing at the sink
and after one edit they're sitting at the table, they've jumped to the other side of the
room, that's literally a jump cut.
One way to completely avoid a jump cut is allow the subject to exit the frame. Once out
of sight, we're willing to loosen the rules of physics. If we see someone enter a front door
and disappear inside, our visual language allows us to accept a jump to any room in the
house by the time the door swings shut. We, as an audience, are so forgiving of these

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jumps, we will accept an edit between a shot of someone walking. Through the front
door of the terminal at LA ; followed by a shot of the same person hailing a taxi at
Heathrow. This tact is easily exploited in your everyday shooting. As a news
photographer, I did mama last-minute features as a series of five or six on-camera
stand-ups in which the talent entered frame left, spoke her piece, and exited frame right.
Getting back to the station with only five or six edits to make was always appreciated as
deadlines loomed.

When professional editors finish projects, they always have favorite edits. It won't be the
edit that grabs attention, but the edit that defies detection. When the rules are followed,
edits become transparent and allow the dialogue and action to shine through. It's unfair
to say the editing will go unnoticed. People notice: emotionally, in their guts not in their
heads. That's the power of a great edit.
Though the editor in this example was offered shots of the doctors from both sides of the
180` line, shots of the heart monitors from both sides of the 180' line, and shots of the
patient looking at either doctor, the editor picked the shots that told the story clearly and
concisely, positively placing each character in relation to the other. In the end, a viewer
should be able to sketch out the relative positions of the players and know exactly who
or what each one sees. If an actor is talking to someone screen left, the matching shot
should have the other actor looking screen right. Success in orienting the viewer
depends on having the right shots to work with in the first place, but still, when the
photographer delivers a wealth of good shots, the final responsibility falls on the editor's
shoulders.
Of course, edits aren't always intended to be transparent or even logical. Sometimes,
viewers will tolerate being disoriented and tricked. Some commercial spots and many
music videos break all the rules, often just for the impact. Still, it's important to understand the rules of editing in order to first, keep the viewer on board in traditional scenes
and second, to obtain maximum visual effect when you do color outside the lilies.
Creating a "look"
There's no telling what "look" is going to grab the public eye. Sometimes, the look is a

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result of a new TV technology. Remember "morphing", the transformation of one image

to another by computer interpolation? Then there's speed ramping, where shots
transition from fast motion to slow motion and back again so seamlessly. For some time,
bad framing and drifting cameras were all the rage. There was even a time when the
"look" was ordinary.
People shot in the most unflattering ways, as popularized by American commercial
director Joe Sedelmaier and his "Where's the beef? ad campaign for a fast-food
franchise.

No

one

call

tell

you

what

the

next

look

will

be,

but

as

producer/director/videographer constantly buffeted by trends and sky-high expectations,

I can certainly share how I see "looks".
First, don't fight it if everyone is talking about a new style, you can be sure You'll hear
(lust after you hear your budget is cut in half), "Can we do something like I insert current
multimillion dollar tad?" I'll go back to something I mentioned earlier in this book: Don't
promise a big laser show if you can't produce. Obviously, a shaky camera look is
deliverable at no extra cost but morphing might still be Out of reach. This is when your
creativity is tested. Rather than morphing, can you carefully match people's eyes and do
dissolves, It might not be the exact look but copying a current trend is more homage
than an attempt to fool people into believing you hired I insert current multimillion dollar
director here I to shoot your daughter's wedding video or your boss's Training tape.
If it seems impossible to even approximate the latest look, remind your client (or
yourself) that looks are appealing because they're new. If the program you're creating is
going to have any shelf life, it may be best to stay away, from current looks. Maybe you
should stick with a classic navy-blazer-khaki-pants kind of look, something that's not
going out of style. Or, you could consider creating your own look.
Steadycam was invented and soon after that, sweeping POV camera moves swept the
planet another example of technology giving birth to style. Take that as a lesson. What
do you have that can be exploited to create your own look? Optical image stabilization,
Can you do an entire production based oil a moving camera, interviews cover,
everything? Do you have a wide-angle lens? Can that form the basis of you look? Filters

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are another way to go. They're cheap and if you understand the situations in which their
effects are most noticeable, and design your shoot to make the most of those exact
situations, you've just created your own look.
But the best place to find for your look may be on your desktop. NLEs today offer many
advanced special effects capabilities including digital effects (sometimes morphing),
masks, selective focus, motion tracking, film look, and probably the most effective, color
correction.
Transitions
What they mean and when to use them
As I've talked about the rules of editing, I've been talking about cuts, the simplest
transition where the shot on screen is instantaneously replaced by another shot. This
fundamental transition usually implies Continuity and chronology, suggesting no time has
passed; this is simply one angle, one view, followed by another
The cut naturally mimics the way you see, locking in on an image, then darting to the
next. That's partly why we perceive that no time has passed when one shot cuts to the
next. Editors and directors make use of this fact. A cut between a shot of someone
looking at the sky and a shot of the sky implies the person is seeing that sky.
Intercutting-cutting back and forth between shots-implies two simultaneous but separate
lines of action. A shot of a train moving screen-right cut with a train moving screen-Ieft
implies an imminent collision. Shots of someone in a waiting room intercut with shots of
surgery Imply that the person in the waiting room is holding vigil the person on the
operating table. Editors and directors will also take advantage of expectations created
with crosscutting by changing the expected outcome of a sequence. See if this sounds
familiar we see image of the spy secretly searching an office intercut with Images of the
traitor arriving at the office, parking the car, and approaching the office door. When the
traitor throw's open the door, we expect to see the spy surprised. Instead, the traitor
enters the office unaware art we cut to an exterior shot of the same office building and
see the spy walking away undetected.

Simple cuts don't stand out when they Join expected images or follow a simple narrative.

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Cuts used to join odd or discontinuous images can have a jarring or surreal effect. As in
Eisenstein's Potemkin, quick cuts can be used to relate images in a montage very quick
cuts, a frame or two in length, of slightly varied images is animation.
Wipes
Generally, wipes mean whatever you think they mean, although they do suggest a major,
bur rarely somber change in scene or storyline
This method of replacement is called the wipe pattern. Wipes can have colored borders
of various widths, soft edges, rotation, and modulation in all sorts of combinations. Sonic
NLE systems also allow wipes to the positioned, that is, to begin at a specific location on
the screen. Wipes (and dissolve) are usually spoken of as having a "duration" expressed
in frames.
Transitions can sometimes solve problems follow. If you cut between two shots that are
too similar, it can appear to be a jump cut. Sometimes the shots are only similar in
dominant line or brightness. Mid even then, the edit could appear to be a jump cut. A
dissolve or we could solve your problem by softening or eliminating, the appearance of
the jump cut. That's not to say you shouldn't tie very careful while you're shooting it's just
that if you do get backed into a corner, a transition might be your escape route. An old
friend of mine used to say, "If you can't solve it, dissolve it, if you can't dissolve it, justify
it. If you can't justify it, well then ...it's art."
What they can't do
Transitions get us from one shot to the next. Some transitions have meaning by tradition
or association. We've covered how the passage of time, change in location,
simultaneous action, and other information transitions call add to a story. Unfortunately,
people try to force: transitions to do things they can't or shouldn't be asked to do, such
as make a program more exciting or interesting transitions can't replace content.
Connect two boring interviews with an amazing 3-D particle storm and you're still left
with two boring Interviews.
With all this awesome transitional power comes all awesome responsibility'. You must

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join-with file and all editors of-good taste and take this oath: "I, [state your name],
promise not to produce videos, or stand by quietly and watch others produce videos, that
seem to have no other purpose than to use even, transition ever invented." OK, you've
been deputized we understand eachother, I have no problem with using a page curl as a
transition in a-project that has storybook overtones. It makes sense. I have no problem
using a star wipe between patriotic images or a shimmer between hot summer images.
In each case, the wipe makes sense. It's defensible. Our problem (I'm counting you in
now - that you've joined the team) is rooting out and discouraging the people who still
think it's cool to do a slide-on followed by a melt-away, an explosion, a matrix, and a
double page peel. Using a string of unrelated and unmotivated transitions is the same
thing as zooming in and out simply because you can; it doesn't help the storytelling, it's
distracting, amateurish, and it looks like you've run out of ideas.
Using Music and Sound
Violins. That's what does it for me. It starts with the distant sound of children's laughter
and the whistle of a chestnut warble in the garden. Inside, the summer breeze billows
behind white gauze curtains. Grandma stands in the mostly empty room, moving boxes
stacked about, pausing to look at that picture of her and grandpa outside this house
back when it was new. The chorus sings, "Remember, remember," and the violins kick ill.
That does it. My eyes get salty and wet and Kodak can chalk up another direct hit.
We, most of us, anyhow, have buttons. There's the fright button, the righteous anger
button, the funny button, and the nostalgia button, the one the Kodak folks have mapped
so successfully. A good editor understands buttons and where to find them. I know
where many are found and I've pushed my share. It's kind of fun watching the other guy
tear up for a change. Gratifying too, finding them. I could show you if you were here, but
for the time being, let me share the fact that they're located mostly on your audio tracks.
Sure, there are some sad ones right around the soft focus, and some happy ones close
to the dog in a fish-eye lens, but they're tons of them beneath carefully crafted layers Of
natural sound, compelling music, and strong voices.

I'm not advocating that you find these buttons arid start mashing away at will, but
probably not for the reason you might think. I'm all in favor of bringing the occasional tear

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to the eye or smile to the lips. I think we can all Use a little emotional goose now and
then. What I object to is the lazy overuse and ultimate reliance on the formula. I'm not
impressed by a piece that finds that old Kodak button, but find the pathos in pop or the
comedy in classical and you'll be showing me that you understand the power and you're
able to use it for the general good'
Editing the Sound Tracks
You'll need one or more video tracks to edit a character-driven feature film, your aunt's
life story, or a classic two-narrator training project, with no special effects, no titles, or
just the normal back-and-forth of dialogue you might separate characters onto their own
tracks or put your B-roll on one and A-roll on another just for the visual pleasure of it, but
it wouldn't be necessary. However, for a decent audio mix it'll be necessary to have six,
maybe eight tracks. They fill up fast! Consider that you'll give up two right away to stereo
music and two more to each layer of sound effects if they're in stereo as well. You'll want
to keep each of sour characters on a separate track and you might want a separate track
for room tone. Did I say eight tracks,' Maybe you'll need a dozen'.

Split your edits

A split edit is an edit where the incue and/or outcue of your video differs from the incue
and outcue of your audio. The result is the stairstep look. Split edits are often necessary
if you want to hear the whole piece of sound (a sentence or sound effect) but you want
to see some other image over the top. Split edits will also help fill in areas where the
audio might be unusable on a neighboring shot. To me, split edits are most helpful in
deemphasizing your edits. Try this sometime. Edit two shots back-to-back with clearly
discernable and differing background audio. Review the edit. Now, extend the audio
from one shot under the other shot and listen again. If the audio and video edits aren't
coincident, the edit is deemphasized. Add an audio dissolve and you'll hardly notice the
transition at all.

Editing the music

Most edit projects involve music. Sometimes, it's a direct involvement as we see
musicians on the screen or hear Uncle Jim talk about his favorite song. More often, it's
less literal, used to suggest attitude and support the emotion of a scene. Music cues the
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viewer, building tension or lightening a moment since you'll use music in most of your
productions, it's important to know how to use it effectively.
It's obvious that choosing suitable music for a scene is important. The favorites on your
shelf might not always be the most appropriate, having a music resource to dip into is
critical. It is illegal to use copyrighted music for any purpose without the copyright
owner's permission. Even if you're simply putting your niece's favorite song under the
dancing at her bat mitzvah, you're in violation. The law in every country in the world is
very clear on this account. Further statutes are broken when you duplicate the tape for
all your aunts and uncles, or worse, post it on the Web. Now, you might never get caught
if it's all kept within the family. It's your decision, but I recommend you look for music
that's created for the purpose of building soundtracks. Search the Web for "copyrightfree music" and you'll find hundreds of sources offering" thousand of cuts at a variety of
prices, from one-time uses to total buyouts.

Music cuts
Music is often surprisingly forgiving of edits. I had a line in a script talking about the
Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark. Talking about the wealthy farmer who founded the
museum, the script line read, "He called it Lousiana, in honor of his first wife...and his
second wife...and his third wife...all named Louise." I was able to take the music running
under the segment, full of long, sustained notes, and simply repeat the note three times
under his first wife, second wife, and third wife. The music edit added another layer of
humor to the sentence and always got a chuckle. In another case, I was Unable to find
music with sufficient impact for a piece about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington. I did find a musical selection with a series of haunting flute passages. I was
able to take just those parts, add long rests in between, and create a cut of music.

Locating edit points with music

Music cuts created far use by video producers are often recorded in convenient clip
lengths of 10, 15, 30, and 60 seconds. That's great if you're cutting commercial spots,
but isn't particularly useful if you're creating a family history or documentary. There's
usually a full-Iength version of each song, too-two, three, or sometimes four minutes on

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length but how often will you need a piece exactly four minutes on length? I find myself
editing almost every cut of music I use. I like to maintain the original beginning and
ending of most pieces because it sounds more natural than simply fading the music up
and down. The trick then is locating edit points within compositions. My method involves
markers. I'll cue up the music and listen to it all the way through a couple f times, tapping
out the rhythm with my fingers. Most contemporary music has a regular rhythm
established by percussion. Sometimes the beat is computer generated and you'll find it
perfectly precise. When I'm comfortable with the tempo I'll run through the song tapping
markers into the time-line. Go back and use the mark-in and mark-out buttons to time
the measures. It'll help you map the song's construction. After that, it's a matter of
locating edit points in the composition places where the phrasing and instrumentation
seem close. If you're careful about marking measures and picking edit points, cuts will
often be perfect on the first try. If nor, go into the asymmetrical trim mode (trim one side
at a time) and begin tweaking. If I find the edit just doesn't work and a trim one frame this
way or that doesn't help, I'll rethink my edit point. I'll ask myself if I should try slipping the
clip a whole measure. Sometimes, even if you've chosen the right place to edit, the
system isn't precise enough o handle trims less than one-thirtieth of a second (one
frame in NTSC).

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